Introducing George Washington, who we bet you don't know

Many of the things we "know" about George Washington aren't true. He never chopped down a cherry tree as a child, and he didn't wear false wood teeth. In fact, the military leader of the Revolutionary War and our nation's first president is an enigma.

"Washington was sort of a remote figure, and that was deliberate on his part," says Dan Spock, director of the Minnesota History Center Museum, which is hosting the touring exhibit "Discover the Real George Washington: New Views From Mount Vernon."

"He was keenly aware of the responsibilities he had as a leader, and he worked very hard to present himself as a dignified figure. As a result, he's come down in history as someone a little mysterious."

The exhibit expands visitors' understanding of the founding father through 100 objects on loan from Washington's home, Mount Vernon, such as his dentures, Bible, porcelain dishes and weapons, along with artifacts from archaeological digs in the Virginia estate's slave quarters. Visitors will learn about Washington's early years as a land surveyor, his views on religion and slavery, his agricultural experiments, business ventures and the influence of his wife, Martha.

"What they've done is turn him into a real person, so you can get beyond the marble bust image of him and get a sense of him as a real person of flesh and blood," says Spock.

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Or at least a person of wax. Life-size wax figures show Washington as a 45-year-old general and a 57-year-old president. But it is the model of him as a 19-year-old land surveyor that is most surprising. With no existing images of Washington younger than age 40, artists use forensic techniques to re-create the strapping young man in a red coat.

"He's very buff," says Spock. "You just think of him as this old gray-haired codger, and here he is as this young dude."

In the spirit of demystifying Washington, here are 10 things you might not have known about him, according to the History Center:

1. Washington's father, Augustine, died when Washington was 11.

2. At age 17, he started working as a surveyor and spent several years surveying the frontier.

3. As commander of Virginia's militia in the French and Indian War (1755-58), Washington learned how to organize an army of about 1,000 men.

4. The president had no children of his own, but after he wed the widow Martha Dandridge Custis, he became legal guardian to her young son and daughter.

5. At the time of the Revolutionary War, Washington was one of wealthiest men in the Virginia colony due to his inheritance, the land he purchased and was given as a result of military service and the fortune Martha brought to their marriage.

6. Washington stayed with the Continental Army almost every day of the eight-year Revolutionary War, visiting his home only 10 days between 1775 and 1783.

7. Washington named his greyhound after Lord Cornwallis, the British general whose army Washington defeated and captured at Yorktown, Va., in 1781 in the last major land battle of the American Revolution.

8. We have Washington to thank for introducing the mule to American agriculture. He also developed a high-tech gristmill, experimented with crop rotation and distilled whiskey during the years he spent managing his plantation at Mount Vernon.

9. Washington took the presidential oath of office in 1789 in New York City, the capital of the new United States of America.

10. Washington owned slaves but was ambivalent about slavery. He freed his slaves in his will. The slaves owned by his wealthy wife, Martha, however, could not be freed, according to Virginia law, and were inherited by the couple's grandchildren.